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No. 112152
ID: 41441c
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Siberia literally exploding as permafrost melts and releases methane.
http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/warnings-of-new-arctic-explosions-at-some-700-plus-sites-in-yamal-due-to-thawing-permafrost/
>Startling details have emerged of last week's methane gas blowout on an Arctic riverbank: a sudden and deafening bang from a large explosion of the ground near a reindeer encampment, fire shooting into the sky and raging for several minutes from the eruption, huge chunks of charred permafrost blown out of the ground, and a deep, eerie crater forming, some 50 metres deep which immediately filled with water.
>Reindeer and dogs fled in fright. Sand and grass was blackened by the intense heat of the eruption which was described as 'a flame of fire and then a rising pillar of smoke'.
>Scientists rushed to the scene on the Yamal Peninsula to examine the site in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, amid expert warnings that many can be expected as a warming climate leads to thawing permafrost and the release of potent methane gas which has lain frozen under the surface for thousands of years.
>The ground is 'swelling' at more than 700 sites on Yamal - known to locals as 'the end of the world' - have been identified as potential explosion sites, but these are seen as the tip of an iceberg.
>Many are hillocks or knolls, some are pingos.
http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/crater-formed-by-exploding-pingo-in-arctic-erupts-a-second-time-from-methane-emissions/
>A new theory also surmises that human exploitation of natural gas resources on the Yamal peninsula has led to the forming of toxic pockets which then explode, forming funnels or craters.
>The phenomenon of dramatically exploding pingos in Siberia’s polar regions has come to light only in recent years.
>It is being actively examined by scientists because of deep concerns over the safety of natural gas industrial installations including pipelines, as well as residential areas, for example on Yamal peninsula.
>A series of crater lakes - some tiny, others large and deep - have been caused by what has been seen as thawing permafrost leading to methane gathering under pingos - and then exploding.
https://www.sciencealert.com/siberian-doorway-to-the-underworld-so-huge-millennia-old-forests-and-carcasses-climate-change
>It's no secret that Siberia's permafrost is on thin ice. Conditions are varying so much that huge holes are appearing out of nowhere, and, in some places, tundra is quite literally bubbling underneath people's feet.
>But one of the biggest craters in the region, known by the local Yakutian people as the 'doorway to the underworld', is growing so rapidly that it's uncovering long-buried forests, carcasses, and up to 200,000 years of historical climate records.
>Known as the Batagaika crater, it's what's officially called a 'megaslump' or 'thermokarst'.
>Many of these megaslumps have been appearing across Siberia in recent years, but researchers think Batagaika could be something of an anomaly in the region, located around 660 km (410 miles) north-east of the region's capital city of Yakutsk.
>Not only is the crater already the largest of its kind, almost 1 km (0.6 miles) long and 86 metres (282 feet) deep, but it's getting bigger all the time.
>Research presented in 2016 by Frank Günther from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany revealed that the head wall of the crater has grown by an average of 10 metres (33 feet) per year over the past decade of observations.
>And in warmer years, the growth has been up to 30 metres (98 feet) per year.
>The team also suspects that the side wall of the crater will reach a neighbouring valley in the coming months as temperatures heat up in the Northern Hemisphere, which could lead to even more land collapse.
>"On average over many years, we have seen that there's not so much acceleration or deceleration of these rates, it's continuously growing," Günther told Melissa Hogenboom from the BBC.
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